This is the third and final of my posts about my trip to Taiwan in May 2015 and how it helped my law practice.
Lesson 3: Memories and relationships, if left uncultivated and unattended, may fade.
Perhaps like after any really good vacation, I came back from my trip with clear and vivid memories of some of my favorite things: a breathtaking gorge of epic proportions formed in marble,
Photo: Michael Acierno
a parking garage transformed into a beautiful (and aromatic) flower market every weekend,
and the site of people who happily gathered many mornings for tai chi.
How, after just two months, have I lost so much of the clarity and intensity of those memories? It is a little disheartening. How can I better hold on to those memories? I think part of the answer is with intention and reflection. After spending just a few minutes focusing, I not only remember the memories, but feel them again.
The cases I work on, just like good memories, deserve deliberate attention and reflection. My best case strategies and ideas would quickly fade if I didn’t deliberately spend time cultivating and working on them. My office would turn into unorganized piles of undeveloped and unfinished projects. My relationships with co-workers and clients would fall apart. In short, my world would be in disarray.
Okay, maybe that’s a little extreme and fatalistic. But the truth is (as I think all of my grandparents told me at one time or another growing up), there is no substitute for hard work. Fortunately, I think what I’m talking about isn’t all that hard, especially by choosing to devote time to it every day. The pay off — rich memories, strong relationships, and meaningful work — is well worth it to me.